


Perfect Fit

by aces_low



Series: Unlocked Doors [7]
Category: Generation Kill
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Both with school as well as with sexy ideas, Established Relationship, Fluff and Humor, Frottage, Hand Jobs, M/M, Ray is a genius, Sharing Clothes, Walking In On Someone, getting caught
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-22
Updated: 2017-09-22
Packaged: 2019-01-03 22:53:31
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,932
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12156459
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aces_low/pseuds/aces_low
Summary: Nate's Family is coming to visit and Ray's choice of clothing leaves something to be desired. (Or is exactly what Nate desires).





	Perfect Fit

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for a college AU series I'm working on...it wasn't supposed to be the first one. I was working on the first one, got nearly done with it, and this idea took over my brain so I had to write it. 
> 
>  
> 
> The characters shown here are not meant to represent the real men, they are just based on the characters of the HBO show. (Also, family members written about here are not meant to represent the real people, just using them to act as my own OCs)

“Baby, please put some clothes on,” Nate begs for the tenth time today, this time, he’s actually able to sound like he means it.

Ray just beams and stretches himself out on Nate’s bed like a cat, rubbing his head into the pillow below him. “We’ve got time.”

Nate sighs and sits down on the bed next to Ray, who hasn’t put any of his clothes back on since Nate had come back from his run this morning, woken Ray up, pulled off the sweatpants he’d been sleeping in, and fucked him nice and slow.

Ray had tried to insist that this is how Nate should wake him up every morning, but Nate knows Ray better than that, knows that him doing that only works on mornings that Ray gets to go right back to sleep. If Nate ever woke Ray up for sex only a couple hours before he had to get up for class Ray would punch him in the face and stop sleeping over, at least for a little while.

So, Ray did fall back asleep, but has since woken up and has decided that he has no desire to put clothes back on. Which had been particularly disturbing for Poke and Kocher who had both accidentally encountered Ray on his way to and from the bathroom. 

Nate had to pretend to listen to another one of Poke’s lectures on nobody being allowed to walk around his house naked as Nate attempted to tidy up their living room.

If this were any other day, Nate would be completely on board for Ray staying naked in his bed all day. Ray looks good naked, natural. He’s small and a bit bony, but he’s comfortable in his skin and around Nate, and that hasn’t always been the case with them, so Nate loves it.

Ray is being cute and distracting, which is just his general MO if Nate is being honest. But right now, he’s also making Nate very anxious.

He rests his hand on Ray’s knee and squeezes lightly. 

“Ray, please.”

“I’ve decided if I never put on clothes then they’ll never come, and I’ll never have to meet them, and they’ll never get to decide that I’m not good enough for you,” Ray admits before quickly hiding his head underneath the pillow.

Nate frowns and moves his hand to rest on Ray’s chest.

“Hey, none of that today. My family is gonna love you, and even if they don’t, that doesn’t matter, because _I_ love you. That’s all I care about, and that’s all they’ll care about too.”

It’s still pretty new for them, saying I love you, so Nate’s heartbeat picks up just a little as he says it, trying not to stutter over the words he’s only said a handful of times so far. It’s also new enough to get Ray to come up from hiding beneath the pillow, a small grin on his face at hearing those words said, his eyes brighter than before.

Nate smiles and leans down to leave a chaste kiss on Ray’s lips, which Ray attempts to deepen. But Nate just pats Ray’s chest beneath his hand and pulls away.

“C’mon, up. I’m gonna finish putting the dishes away, and by the time I get back I want to see you in some clothes.”

He levels Ray with a stare, eyebrows raised and lips pursed, letting him know he means it.

Ray sighs. “Fine, I’ll put clothes on.”

“Thank you.”

 

Nate leaves Ray, trusting that he’ll follow his request, as he heads to the kitchen to finish washing and putting away the last of the dishes. He tries to keep the place as clean as he can most days, but living in a house with three other guys, where there are often unexpected house guests, means it tends to get messy in record time.

“Hey.”

Nate looks over to see Brad walk into the kitchen and head over to the refrigerator.

“Hey, you headed to the gym?” Nate asks, turning back to the sink.

“Yeah, uh, is Ray staying over tonight?”

That makes Nate pause and turn back to see Brad leaning against the counter. Ray usually stays over most weekends and some weekdays. Ever since they’ve started dating, Ray spends less and less time in his own dorm room than he does with Nate.

Brad knows this and complains about it constantly. Though Nate secretly believes that Brad likes having his best friend over even more often than he used to be, not that he’d ever tell Brad his theory.

“Yeah, should be,” he answers, narrowing his eyes at Brad.

There is a hunch in his shoulders and a tightness in his eyes that give him away and Nate can’t help but grin.

“Don’t worry, you and Walt can enjoy the peacefulness of the dorm without Ray barging in on you, I promise.”

Brad scowls but doesn’t deny that he has plans, or wants to have plans, with Walt tonight.

Ray will be thrilled to hear it.

Before he can say anything else, he sees his phone light up where he’d set it on the table.

He bends down to see a text from his mom telling him that they’re about twenty miles away.

“So, Ray Person versus the whole Fick family tonight, huh?” Brad pipes up.

Nate scowls. “It’s gonna be fine, my family isn’t that bad.”

“Oh, I know that your family can behave themselves, it’s whether or not Ray can.”

“He’ll be fine,” Nate insists, knowing that Brad just likes to poke fun at Ray’s more outlandish personality traits. But he knows, maybe even better than Nate, that Ray can act completely normal and charming when he wants to.

“He’s really nervous, you know,” Brad says, dropping his amusement for a moment.

Nate turns back to the sink. “I know, but he’s gonna keep agonizing until they meet and then he’ll realize that he never had anything to be worried about.”

He’s not just saying that either, the butterflies that have been fluttering around his stomach all day, and the past few days if he’s being honest, have had nothing to do with what his family will think of Ray and more of what Ray will think of them. 

Nate is worried that once Ray meets his parents and realizes Nate comes from a very plain, boring family, he’ll also realize that Nate is not anything special.

He’s not going to let Brad in on that fact though.

“It’ll be fine,” he tells the plate in his hand, and Brad, again.

“Well, have fun, I guess,” Brad says, and Nate can see him stand up straight and head toward the living room.

“Yeah, you too. Tell Walt ‘hi’,” he calls after him, and he can almost hear the scowl on Brad’s face.

He smiles to himself and works on finishing the last of the dishes.

 

“Ray, what the fuck?” he asks when he walks back in his room, though any ire is quickly undercut as he’s unable to keep himself from laughing.

Ray grins. “I put clothes on,” he says, proudly, gesturing to himself, where he is wearing one of Nate’s baggy school sweatshirts. And nothing else.

While Nate isn’t comically bigger than Ray – not in the way Brad is, anyway – the sweatshirt Ray has chosen is one that is already a size too large on Nate. On Ray, it looks like he is drowning in it due to his slight frame. The arms for the sweatshirt are just a couple inches too long, making the cuffs stop halfway down his fingers, and Nate is pretty sure if there were two of Ray they’d both be able to fit inside of it. Despite all that, the sweatshirt isn’t nearly long enough for Ray to look anywhere close to ready to leave Nate’s room, the bottom resting at his hips, and for some reason, the small tease of modesty looks almost more indecent than Ray being fully naked had. 

“You look obscene,” Nate tells him, closing the distance between them and reaching his arms around to grab onto what he presumes will be Ray’s uncovered ass. He’s proven correct when his hands meet skin and the cocky smirk Ray has been sporting loses its edge when his eyes widen and his hand shoots up to grip Nate’s shoulder.

“I thought you wanted me to put something on,” Ray demurs, recovering quickly from Nate’s surprise grab, though it has less impact when Nate uses his hold to pull Ray’s hips flush with his own and Ray lets out a short gasp.

“Why did you choose today to have all the best ideas?” Nate asks sincerely, bending his head to kiss along Ray’s jaw as his hands move up Ray’s back, rucking up the material in their path.

He can feel Ray’s grin against his lips. 

“You like it, huh? Is it the size thing or that it’s yours?” 

Nate pulls back to look at Ray again. The neck of the sweatshirt is just big enough to scoop down, revealing the top of Ray’s collarbone, the bottom of it is barely doing anything to hide Ray’s half-hard cock, and there is something warm and possessive resting in Nate’s chest at the idea of anyone seeing Ray like this, knowing that it’s Nate’s sweatshirt he’s wearing. He’s not overly proud of that thought though.

“The size,” he says, reaching out to thumb at the fabric, lifting it up a fraction to fully reveal Ray’s growing erection.

That doesn’t faze him in the slightest, but he does quirk an eyebrow up at Nate’s words. 

“Really? So, should I try on one of Brad’s sweatshirts? That’d really get you going?” he pushes.

Nate frowns and grabs a handful of the thick material, pulling Ray back in to catch him in a biting kiss, payback for calling Nate out on his bluff.

“I think you look better in my clothes,” Nate murmurs against his lips, walking Ray backward, further into the room.

Ray grins and lets himself be manhandled down onto the bed, but stops Nate when he moves to kneel on the floor in front of him.

“Bed,” Ray demands, tugging at Nate’s shirt.

Nate frowns. “We really don’t have time for this, Ray,” he says, but still unbuttons his jeans and moves to sit down, back leaning against the wall the bed has been shoved against.

“They’ll call when they get in town right? And they have to stop off at the hotel first before coming over here,” Ray reminds him, crawling up Nate’s legs and assisting in getting Nate’s pants down around his knees before deciding that’s good enough.

Nate is swayed by Ray’s argument, or at least he doesn’t make any more excuses as to why this is a bad idea. Or maybe it’s the loose hand Ray has around his leaking cock that’s making him forget that his family will be here soon.

“Fuck,” is all he’s able to get out as Ray climbs more fully into his lap, rubbing his hard length against Nate’s for a moment, as much as the angle will allow. 

It’s when Ray wraps a hand around both of them that Nate bucks his hips up, nearly unseating Ray from his lap. But he just grabs Ray’s hips tight, holding him in place, as Ray works them both, leaning in to kiss Nate once, twice before resting their foreheads together, looking down to watch their cocks slide together inside the circle of his fingers. 

Nate’s fingers press into the bony hips underneath them. Drawing circles in his skin with one thumb, he lets his other hand move upward, pushing the sweatshirt up over Ray’s taut stomach, up more until he reveals one of Ray’s small, pink nipples. He thumbs at it a few times, rubbing at the nub until Ray lets a whimper slip from his throat. 

Nate smiles at the noise and angles his head up to kiss him again. Only, Ray takes control, going from short, teasing pressure to sucking on his tongue. Nate groans, pinching Ray’s nipple until he pulls away with a gasp.

“Cheater,” Ray whines, resting his head back against Nate’s.

Both of their breathing is becoming erratic as they watch Ray’s hands cover and uncover the heads of both their cocks.

Nate brings his hands back down to grip Ray’s slim hips again, holding tight to start thrusting in Ray’s hold.

Only, before he can, he hears a voice.

“- knock, we’re here! We thought – Oh, my god!”

“Oh, my god,” Nate echoes his sister, who has just barged into his bedroom, followed by his mother.

“Shit!” Ray hisses, throwing himself down on top of Nate, as though that will hide him as he pulls at the covers underneath them. 

“Go back! Go back!” his sister yells, trying to get the three other people who had been trying to enter the room after her to reverse.

“Get out!” Nate yells as Maureen attempts to push their mother, who has lifted her hands up to block out any view – most likely that of Ray’s bare ass - and their father, who only got as far as the doorway, out of the room.

Ray is finally able to get the comforter up and around himself, thankfully having the presence of mind to keep Nate covered as well.

“What? What’s going on?” he can hear his other sister’s voice from the other side of the wall, and there are some small mercies that at least one member of his family didn’t witness everything.

“My eyes! Move!” 

Finally, his sister is able to get everyone out and slams the door behind her as she goes.

Nate stares at the door for a few seconds, trying to wrap his mind around what just happened. 

Eventually, enough blood has traveled back up to his brain that the most important part of this comes to him. He lifts the comforter to see Ray crouched in the fetal position, face down.

“Ray,” he tries, reaching out to run his fingers through the top of Ray’s head.

Instead of responding Ray just makes a desperate, groaning noise, almost like he wants to scream but can’t muster the volume for it right now.

“Ray, baby, come back up.”

“No,” Ray says, voice is muffled against the sheet. “I’m never leaving this spot unless you want to bury me alive in the fucking yard.”

Nate tries to pull the covers back, but Ray just grips them tight around himself. 

“I’m serious, Nate, I’m not coming out.”

He sighs and runs his fingers through Ray’s hair again. It’s probably best that he deals with the direct aftermath by himself anyway.

Luckily, nothing kills all levels of arousal better than Nate’s whole family seeing him and Ray having sex, so he it doesn't take too much time getting himself looking presentable again. 

He takes a deep breath and puts a hand on the lump in the middle of his bed that is Ray, in what he hopes is a comforting gesture, before exiting his room to face his family.

Only Stephanie is sitting in the kitchen waiting for him.

She looks amused in a way that only someone who wasn’t in the room could be in this moment.

“How bad is it?” he asks after giving her a hug in greeting.

“Well…dad is mortified, mom is upset that we embarrassed you, and Mo is probably going to kill you.”

Nate huffs. “If anyone should be pissed off it’s me,” he insists. He hadn’t invited them to just barge into his room like that.

Stephanie just shrugs and nods her head toward the living room, where Nate can guess everyone is waiting.

His eyes glance over to the kitchen table and he sees his phone where he’d left it earlier. He has a feeling if he opens it he’ll find several missed calls and texts telling him that they’ve decided to stop by and see him first before going to the hotel. 

He takes one last deep breath and follows his sister into the living room.

His dad is sitting on the couch, pretending to look at a textbook that’s been left on the coffee table. Maureen is pacing on the far side of the room, and his mother is attempting to tidy up the room even more than he already has.

As soon as he walks in his mom sees him and rushes over.

“Oh, Nate, honey, I’m so sorry,” she says, kissing his cheek and pulling him in for a tight hug. 

He hugs her back and looks over to where Maureen is now glaring daggers at him. He glares right back.

“I’m never going to be able to unsee that now, you know that, right?” she accuses.

“Maureen,” his mother chides, pulling away to look at her middle child. 

“What? I’m supposed to pretend like I didn’t just walk in on my brother having sex?”

“Stop, please,” Nate insists.

“Mo, oh my god,” Stephanie attempts to admonish, but there’s a laugh in her voice that makes it fall flat.

“And don’t even get me started on the fact that the only part of your boyfriend I’ve seen so far is his bony ass.”

Nate knows that his ears are probably bright red at this point, but that doesn’t stop him from scowling at his sister for her accusatory tone.

“Who just walks into someone’s room uninvited?”

“Why wasn’t your door locked?” she challenges right back.

“It just kind of happened, we weren’t exactly planning -“

“Oh, my god, I don’t want to hear this,” Maureen yells again, covering her ears and turning around to stare at the wall.

“So that was Ray?” Nate’s father pipes up before Nate can say anything else, clearly trying for a different topic of conversation.

Nate frowns. “Yeah.”

“He seems…”

“Please don’t finish that sentence,” Nate groans, kind of wishing he could just go back and join Ray underneath his comforter.

No one seems to know what to say for a few moments, all of them shifting awkwardly and avoiding eye contact.

“How did you guys get in, anyway?” Nate asks, though he knows his roommate’s proclivity for keeping their front door unlocked.

“Brad let us in, he was on his way out when we showed up,” Nate’s mom tells him.

And Nate makes a mental note to have words with Brad about just letting people in without warning him. Even if it is his own family.

“So, why did you guys decide to come here first?”

“The restaurant is closer to the hotel than here, we figured it was a waste of time to go there, then come pick you boys up and then go back that way,” his father explains, his uneasy voice and averted eyes giving away the fact that he no longer thinks that was as good of an idea as he’d originally thought.

“We could have just met you there,” Nate argues needlessly, it’s over and they can’t go back in time, though there has never been a moment that Nate has wished he had a time machine more than right now.

“In fact, that’s probably what we should do. I don’t know how long it’s gonna take me to convince Ray to come out of hiding,” he adds.

“Oh, make sure he comes, I’ve been waiting to meet him for months,” his mother insists, uselessly fixing the collar on Nate’s shirt.

Nate just shrugs and nods, really hoping he’ll be able to do it. He does not want to have dinner with his family alone tonight.

“Uh, excuse me, you have a traumatized child over here and you’re all worried about dinner?” Maureen speaks up again and Nate rolls his eyes.

“Yeah, how about we all walk in on you and one of your boyfriends sometime and then we can compare notes on which side really has it worse,” he challenges.

“Nate, Maureen, stop. We’re done talking about this,” their mother tells them, ready to be done with ever acknowledging this ever again. Nate is perfectly fine with that.

Maureen just crosses her arms and stomps across the living room to the front door.

“I’ll be in the car,” she tells them before walking outside.

“I think that’s our cue to go,” his dad says, standing up from the couch. “We should probably check in at the hotel.”

It’s very clearly an effort to just get away from having to potentially hear any more discussion on any of his children’s sex lives.

“Good idea,” Nate says, ushering his mother and sister toward the door. “We’ll just meet you guys at the restaurant at seven.”

His mom gives him another kiss on the cheek and his dad gives him a pat on the back as he passes him in the doorway. Once the door is closed he rests his head against it, fearing what he’s about to walk back into with Ray almost as much as he’d worried about facing his family.

He makes his way back through the kitchen and slowly opens the door to his bedroom, as though he’s afraid Ray is going to come barreling out.

Instead, he’s sitting on the side of Nate’s bed, fully dressed, scratching at the material of the blanket underneath him.

“Hey, you ok?” Nate asks softly.

Ray looks at him as he answers and nearly launches himself up at Nate to pull him down into a hard, desperate kiss.

“What the hell?” Nate asks, trying to pull Ray off of him.

“So, this has been great, almost six months together, that’s the longest relationship I’ve ever had. And…yeah, so goodbye forever?” Ray rambles on, attempting to get past Nate and leave the room.

“No, Ray, c’mon, stop.” Nate is able to get his arms around him and pull him further back into the room. “We’re not breaking up, and you’re still coming with me to dinner tonight.”

Ray snorts. “Fucking try me.”

“You’re coming. Because my mom wants to meet you and you’re not leaving me to deal with this by myself.”

“Your parents were already going to hate me after two minutes talking to me. I can’t even imagine what they’re thinking about me now that they’ve seen my naked ass and possibly more. There’s no coming back from this, Nate.”

“Hey,” Nate says, cupping Ray’s face in his hands to make him look up at him. “I don’t know where you got this idea in your head that my parents weren’t going to like you, they’re gonna love you. You don’t have to do anything to impress them, I don’t want you to meet them to get their approval of you, I want them to meet you because I love you and I want to show you off. And yeah, dinner is probably going to be really uncomfortable because everyone is embarrassed. But they’re not gonna hold that against you.”

Ray lowers his eyes and shakes his head as much as he can within Nate’s grip.

“You know I love the tunnel vision you have when it comes to ignoring all my less attractive qualities, but you gotta stop pretending that you and I come from similar circles.” 

Nate frowns, not understanding what Ray means at first. Then it clicks that he’s talking socioeconomically, and his frown deepens.

“You think I give a shit about something like that?” he asks.

“No.”

“You think my parents give a shit about something like that.” It’s not a question this time, because he knows that’s what Ray is thinking, that they’ll get one look at him and stick their noses up at the kid from rural Missouri, raised by a single mom who was only able to send him to college because of the full-ride scholarship he’s on.

“Look, whatever white, suburbanite stereotype you think my parents are you’re probably not too far off. But they’re not assholes, and they’d never treat you poorly because you may be in a different tax bracket than them. And if they did do that, and I just let them, then you _should_ break up with me.”

Ray shrugs and lowers his gaze, but Nate just lifts Ray’s head up higher, trying to meet his eyes.

“That’s not gonna happen, ok? They wouldn’t do that, and I wouldn’t let anyone treat you like that, including them. Because you’re not any less than anyone, especially not me.”

“I know, I know you wouldn’t, I know,” Ray finally says, wrapping his arms around Nate and shoving his face into his neck.

Nate rubs his back for a while, trying to think of anything else to say. After a minute of silence between them, something comes to him.

“Here’s something that’ll cheer you up,” he says, remembering his conversation from earlier. “Brad and Walt are definitely going to be fucking in your bed tonight.”

He can feel as much as hear Ray’s snickering against his neck.

“They’ve probably had sex on my bed more than I have.”

Nate grins. “Well, since we’ve only done it there the one time, I’d say that’s probably accurate.”

“Well, yeah, with _you_ , but we can’t forget about my secret dorm boyfriend. The one whose arms I run to whenever I’m not over here with you,” Ray says, pressing his smile to Nate’s shoulder.

Nate chuckles and swats at Ray’s ass in retaliation. Instead of the laugh he’d been expecting, though, he feels Ray’s breath hitch against his skin.

“Really?” he asks, pulling away to look Ray in the eye. “Spanking?”

As with all new additions to Ray’s ever-growing list of new sexual experiences he may want to try out, he just shrugs and looks to Nate for direction or his thoughts about it. Nate doesn’t have any personal experience with spanking either though, so he makes a mental note to do some research.

“So, will you come with me to dinner?” he asks, changing the subject for now.

Ray groans and walks back to throw himself onto the bed.

“I’m never not going to be the pants-less guy to them, am I?”

Nate moves to follow, kneeling on either side of his hips and resting his arms next to Ray’s head. He leans down to kiss him a couple of times before pulling back.

“If you don’t come tonight, you probably will be. But if you do, and let them get to know you, you’ll just be Ray, the guy I’ve been telling them about for months.”

Ray grimaces.

“Also, you’ll be known as a good boyfriend who didn’t leave me to deal with it all by myself.”

“Fine,” Ray relents. “But only because I’m the best boyfriend.”

“You are,” Nate agrees with a grin.

Nate makes sure to keep his head about him and doesn’t let their make out go on for too long or get out of hand. He doesn’t want to show up for dinner clearly flushed after what happened earlier.

Ray tries to keep him in place when he pulls back, but Nate just stands up from the bed and Ray let’s himself be pulled up along with him and doesn’t complain much when they head out the door.

Instead, he just says, “if they do fuck on my bed, I’m definitely making Brad wash my sheets.”

 

Nate grabs Ray’s hand as they walk into the restaurant, noticing his fingers becoming fidgety. Ray squeezes his hand and takes a deep breath.

Nate’s family is already sitting at the table when they walk in and his father stands when he sees them.

“Everyone, this is Ray,” Nate says, grabbing Ray by the shoulders to present him fully to the table.

“Ray, nice to meet you, Neil,” his dad introduces himself, giving Ray a firm handshake.

Once he lets go, Nate’s mom pops up and pulls Ray into a hug, clearly startling Ray.

“Ray, it’s so nice to meet you, sweetie, I’m Jane.”

“That’s Steph and Mo,” Nate points to each of his sisters as they sit down. 

Stephanie waves and says a quick “hi!” 

While Maureen looks around the table for a moment before mumbling a hello into her water.

Ray grips Nate’s thigh under the table and Nate rests his hand on top of Ray’s.

“So, Ray, Nate tells us you’re studying some kind of Engineering? I never can remember what he says it is,” Nate’s mom says, once they’ve all put in their orders.

“Electrical engineering,” Nate corrects, like always.

“That sounds interesting, now what is that exactly?” Nate’s dad asks.

“It’s not as complex as it can sound,” Ray says. “It’s basically just studying electricity and its components and how it all works.”

“Well, it sounds complex to me. You must be pretty smart to do that,” his mom says.

Ray starts to shrug so Nate pipes in.

“He is. He was recruited by three different schools and given a full ride scholarship to come to them to study Electrical Engineering and he chose to come here because they allowed him to double major in that and Philosophy,” Nate rushes to tell them, even though he’s told his mom all of this before. He likes bragging about Ray, especially because Ray always seems determined to downplay how amazing he is.

Ray digs his fingers into Nate’s leg a little, but Nate isn’t sorry.

“Just one of those sounds like more than enough work for one person,” his dad says, looking impressed. “Is that why you’re so determined to turn yours into a double major too?” he directs toward Nate this time.

Now Nate feels a small flush on his face and ears at the suggestion that he’s trying to keep up with Ray, not that his dad is necessarily wrong.

“I’ve just really liked all my government courses and I’ve taken enough that my advisor said I wouldn’t be behind on graduating as long as I was able to get all the classes I needed next year,” Nate argues.

It’s only a recent idea he’s thrown at his parents, and while they’re largely supportive, they’re worried he’s going to be stretching himself too thin if he decides to go for the double major. He’s not really wanting to have a conversation with his parents trying to prove to them that he can do it with Ray sitting right next to him already accomplishing his own double major without any real problems.

“I think Nate would make a good politician,” Ray blurts out and now Nate’s ears are definitely red again.

His parents look surprised, which makes sense, as Nate hasn’t discussed his vague ideas of possibly going into politics. He’s only ever mentioned the idea to Ray when it’s just been the two of them. Until this moment, it has very literally just been pillow talk.

Stephanie snorts. “You want to be the next President, Natey?”

“You’re too young to be the president,” Maureen points out.

“No,” he says with a glare to both of his sisters.

“I’ve been trying to talk him into considering Legislative stuff, I think if anyone could get something done over there, it’s Nate,” Ray says, much more at ease now that the focus isn’t on him.

Nate squeezes the fingers underneath his hand.

His parents are still looking at him in surprise and he’s not sure if it’s due to his sudden – in their minds – interest in politics, or Ray’s opinions on it.

They don’t say anything though as their food comes and the dinner conversation becomes lighter and less school oriented.

Ray makes everyone laugh like Nate had known he would, and is able to keep most of his language PG. Nate has often tried to remind people, including Ray himself, that Ray can be charming when he wants to be, and he knows how to hold a room’s focus.

Even Maureen can’t help but a crack a smile through dinner, which makes Nate feel even better. Before the events earlier, Nate had been sure that Ray and Maureen would get along well.

He’s thankful that everyone is on their best behavior, not mentioning anything about what happened. That is, until at the end of dinner, once all the plates have been cleared away, that Maureen decides to speak up.

“I’d just like to address the elephant in the room,” she says, and nearly everyone at the table groans.

“Mo, please,” he begs at the same time their mother hisses, “Maureen,” at her.

But that doesn’t stop her at all as she looks directly to Ray.

“Ray, you seem like a cool guy, and my brother is clearly all heart eyes over you, which makes me think you’re gonna be around for a while. So, I know it’s like the Fick Family motto to repress and pretend all is well, but I don’t want this to be an awkward thing that hangs over all our heads for the rest of our lives and only comes out ten years later when someone gets too drunk at the Christmas party.”

Ray reaches out the grab Nate’s thigh again.

“I saw your ass. And while I didn’t see everything, thank _God_ , I think we all got the basic gist of what was going on.”

This time it’s their dad that tries to get her to stop talking. “That’s enough, Maureen.”

“All I’m saying is that if you can promise me that’s not something I’m ever going to have to worry about again, then I promise not to give you both a hard time about it every time I see you.”

Ray looks to Nate for a moment, and Nate has no words for him in this moment.

So, Ray just turns to look at Maureen again before he shrugs. “I can promise that you’ll never see anything you don’t want to see as long as from now on you knock on every door you go through and wait to be invited inside.”

There is a loud bark of a laugh and they all look over to Nate’s mom who has clapped a hand over her mouth at her outburst, but it’s enough to make the rest of them start laughing as well, and Nate can’t help but lean in to kiss Ray’s cheek.

Even Maureen looks amused as she rolls her eyes at her family and Ray, and Nate can see a future alliance between the two that he’s not sure if he’s more excited or worried about.

 

“So, Ray, will you be joining us tomorrow?” Nate’s dad asks as they all walk out to the parking lot.

“Maybe later in the day, but I’ll let you all have Nate to yourselves for a while,” Ray tells him. “Plus, I might have some laundry to do.”

That makes Nate snicker, smiling wide at the wink Ray throws his way, but he ignores the questioning looks from his family.

His mom gives them both a hug goodbye and his dad shakes Ray’s hand again and gives Nate a hug of his own, and Maureen finally allows Nate to hug her before they head out.

“So…” Nate prompts as they drive back to his house. 

“You were right, I freaked out over nothing,” Ray admits, reaching across the console to grab Nate’s hand.

Nate grins and kisses Ray’s knuckles.

 

Poke and Kocher are playing some video game when they walk in and don’t seem at all concerned with them other than when they have to pass by the TV to get to Nate’s room.

Still, when Ray shoves him against his closed bedroom door to kiss him hard, Nate makes sure to lock it behind them.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! I hope to have the "first" installment to this series out this weekend.


End file.
